McCain and Obama share royal lineage

John McCain, the Republican presidential contender, and Barack Obama, his Democrat rival, are both descended from the same Scottish king, it has been claimed.

According to research by an American genealogist, they share a common bloodline that can be traced to William I of Scotland, or William the Lion.

It was disclosed last year that Mr Obama was a descendant of the monarch who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214, and his background and upbringing spans the globe. He was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, later living in Indonesia.

A separate study into Mr McCain's ancestry has now found that the 71-year-old Arizona senator has the same royal lineage.

Senator McCain was the surprising Republican victor in the New Hampshire primary last week. The former navy pilot and Vietnam veteran described his Scottish credentials in his autobiography, Faith of My Fathers.

Related Articles

He wrote that "the McCains, bred to fight as Highland Scots of the Clan McDonald, arrived in America shortly after it gained independence".

Gary Boyd Roberts, a senior research scholar at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, claims that both Mr McCain and Mr Obama can trace their ancestry to Isabel, an illegitimate daughter of William the Lion.

Mr McCain's family was traced back to his four-times great-grandparents, Hugh and Agnes McCain, who emigrated to Caswell County, North Carolina, in 1778.

Mr Obama's ancestor, Edward FitzRandolph, emigrated to America more than 100 years earlier.